The city of Los Angeles lay like a huge creature, cut open from neck to tail with its entrails glistening and bloody in the sun. Matthew woke from a fitful dream. He was standing with several people inside a spacious cavern, staring at large containers he needed to open. Somebody shouted for him to flee, but he attacked a man holding a large gun that thundered bullets all around him. The bullets tore into him.

He jerked from his prone position and opened his eyes at the destroyed landscape. He heard the sounds of water raining down upon the ground. He had traveled this land for several days.

His dinner last night was roasted rabbit cooked over an open fire. He had learned this somehow in a far away memory that he couldn't recall knowing or even understanding.

Matthew stood and stretched, looking around for any creatures and people roaming about the devastated land. He had slept under a freeway that was still intact, the underpass over him keeping him cool in its shade. The day was getting warm and Matthew took off his thick jacket and scarf. He sensed something was amiss. It was as if an impending darkness came over him with an evil creature watching him, ready to pounce and dismember him. He didn't see anything but the feeling hung around him like a blanket.

The last few days he had been practicing his new powers. One thing that he learnedwas his infinite ability to conjure and manipulate fire. He held out his hands and pointed at a patch of bare earth a few yards from him. He focused, and sensed power radiating from his chest. Fire exploded from his hand and struck the wood pile and flames shot upwards.

"Wow," he said.

He waved his right hand in a circle and the flames started to circle. Matthew almost clapped his hands in delight, but he didn't. Now, he thought. He had been practicing his powers for several hours and he hoped he could perform this. He focused on the fire and watched it dance before him. He saw it curl around the wood, eating the air and destroying the debris.

He became the fire and sensed his mind and body going into his powers. The flames rose higher and higher, then he concentrated and let it become whisper-thin like a concentric tunnel. He envisioned the fire going through a pipe. He held the fire still and placed both of his hands downward in a covering position. He smothered it with his mind. Smoke arose from the stack of wood and debris.

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He was holding his breath and took a deep gasp of air. His body trembled slightly as if he had lifted something very heavy and his muscles tingled with the use. His powers were developing. He sat in a large cement block, still feeling that something was going to attack him. He thought he would never be ready no matter how many hours he practiced his magic. This growing evil would always be more powerful and destructive than he would be.

Matthew relaxed his body and mind. A howl pierced and punctured the air sending goose bumps along his back and arms.

The noise was not coming from around this area or even in Los Angeles. The noise was coming from within his mind and inside his very bones.

Matthew heard the sound of the enemy and knew the adversary was far away from him. He would have to confront this person one day. He heard the howl again and had an odd feeling that he knew who this person was and had met this person before. It was from somewhere in the far reaches of his memory. But his history was lost to him, like a sea of ideas and patterns which shifted around him and changed like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that don't fit. He glanced at his ring and looked at the stone embedded on it, noticing it glowing a fiery orange-red.

A name came bubbling up to the surface of his unconscious, Royce. He didn't understand how he could know this, but he was certain. Royce had changed. He had become this Alpha wolf beast.

Matthew shook his head. He needed to find the Leader to show him his true destiny. He was destined to find this ancient city and unlock the Bastions.

Matthew went to his supplies. He had a backpack stuffed with food and a long knife he found in rubble inside a large store.

Then, in a corner of the shade, he spotted a large creature staring at him. It was as big as the Grog wolves he saw roaming among the wreckage of the city, but something was different with this beast. It looked like a dog, not the feral grog beasts he had seen before. It sniffed at the air and waited. The creature didn't attack him or even growl. Matthew lifted his right hand and a small flame sprouted over his palm. He had seen enough carnage and beasts killing and didn't want to be the next victim.

"Wait!" A voice as clear as the sky shot into the bottom of his shelter. A man walked closer to him and said, "Are you Matthew? I have been looking for you."

He knew instantly who this person was. Matthew went on one knee. "Yes, my name is Matthew. You must be the Leader I have been searching for."